J.R.R. Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings
The Lord of the Rings is my all-time favourite! To such an extent, that even the name of this blog has been derived from the book. And the quick-witted reader might have guessed it from the title of the opening post, where I quoted Gandalf, standing on the balcony in Minas Tirith, with Marry at his side, both looking east at the Ephel Dúath and the black clouds above Mordor beyond.
J.R.R. Tolkien is the one writer of whom I possess the most books: at the present 16 in total. It was in 2001 when I first came in touch with The Lord of the Rings. But it has been neither the books nor the first film The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring, then but about to be released, I made first contact with. But a board game opened up the doors into this mysterious world.
I remember having watched the first film in great awe, barely blinking lest I should miss a scene. I have seen it some 50 times, since :-) After that it was only a matter of time until I read the books, but I didn’t miss to start with The Hobbit, which can be seen as a kind of prologue to the trilogy.
Besides The Lord of the Rings itself, there exists a whole range of complementary works to Tolkien’s world. The Silmarillion forms the heart of these. Starting with the “Ainulindalë” and the “Valaquenta” it recounts the story of the creation of the world, how Elves, Men, and Dwarves came to be, and how Evil first began to spread in the lands of Middle-Earth. It is the time of the First and Second Age, to which the characters of The Lord of the Rings look back, and which gives an in-depth understanding for the happenings at the end of the Third Age.
Finally, the collection of The History of Middle-Earth, consisting of 12 books, takes the interested reader deep into the creation process of Tolkien’s invented world and tells in an unprecedented detailed manner of the Valar, of the Elves, Dwarves, Men, Balrogs, and Orcs, of the three Silmarils and the five Great Battles of Beleriand fought against the Dark Lord Morgoth, of Gondolin and Nargothrond, of Tol Eressëa, of the Creation and Downfall of Númenor, of the Forging of the Rings, of the Founding of Gondor and Arnor - up to the events, which in the end bring Frodo and his companions together.
Whereas The Lord of the Rings is a mystic legend, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-Earth rise to true mythology.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien: The Silmarillion. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999. 479 pages. First published in 1977.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien: The History of Middle-Earth. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2002. 12 volumes. First published in 1983.
J.R.R. Tolkien is the one writer of whom I possess the most books: at the present 16 in total. It was in 2001 when I first came in touch with The Lord of the Rings. But it has been neither the books nor the first film The Lord of the Rings – The Fellowship of the Ring, then but about to be released, I made first contact with. But a board game opened up the doors into this mysterious world.
I remember having watched the first film in great awe, barely blinking lest I should miss a scene. I have seen it some 50 times, since :-) After that it was only a matter of time until I read the books, but I didn’t miss to start with The Hobbit, which can be seen as a kind of prologue to the trilogy.
Besides The Lord of the Rings itself, there exists a whole range of complementary works to Tolkien’s world. The Silmarillion forms the heart of these. Starting with the “Ainulindalë” and the “Valaquenta” it recounts the story of the creation of the world, how Elves, Men, and Dwarves came to be, and how Evil first began to spread in the lands of Middle-Earth. It is the time of the First and Second Age, to which the characters of The Lord of the Rings look back, and which gives an in-depth understanding for the happenings at the end of the Third Age.
Finally, the collection of The History of Middle-Earth, consisting of 12 books, takes the interested reader deep into the creation process of Tolkien’s invented world and tells in an unprecedented detailed manner of the Valar, of the Elves, Dwarves, Men, Balrogs, and Orcs, of the three Silmarils and the five Great Battles of Beleriand fought against the Dark Lord Morgoth, of Gondolin and Nargothrond, of Tol Eressëa, of the Creation and Downfall of Númenor, of the Forging of the Rings, of the Founding of Gondor and Arnor - up to the events, which in the end bring Frodo and his companions together.
Whereas The Lord of the Rings is a mystic legend, The Silmarillion and The History of Middle-Earth rise to true mythology.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: The Hobbit. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2006. 399 pages. First published in 1937.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien: The Lord of the Rings. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2004. 1,183 pages. First published in 1954-55.John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien: The Silmarillion. HarperCollinsPublishers, 1999. 479 pages. First published in 1977.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien, ed. by Christopher Tolkien: The History of Middle-Earth. HarperCollinsPublishers, 2002. 12 volumes. First published in 1983.